Foundry cupola



Dec. 7, 1937. QRQTEWQHL 2,101,391

' FOUNDRY CUPOLA Filed Feb. 3, 1956 e Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 160950?!fiiororolu ATTORNEY Dec. 7, 1937. GROTEWQHL 2,101,391

FOUNDRY CUPOLA Filed Feb. 3, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR[.fll/Ffi/Yf' 6. 6207mm;

ATTORNEY Dec. 7, 1937 GRQTEWQHL 2,101,391

FOUNDRY CUPOLA Filed Feb. 3, 1956 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR Mafia/c:46207370171,

1937. A. GROTEWOHL 2,101,391

FOUNDRY CUPOLA Filed Feb. 5, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 .EL p I" [1' 4INVENTOR Lawns c2 49. Karin 01% XLMMZ 1/62 ATTO RNEY Dec. 7, 1937. 1GROTEWQHL 2,101,391

FOUNDRY CUPOLA Filed Feb. 3, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENTOR A auegqc/ 6.romran. a. (W 4% ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 7, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE,

FOUNDRY CUPOLA poration of Michigan Application February 3, 1936, SerialNo. 62,066

4 Claims.

This invention relates to cupola furnaces used in foundries for theproduction of melted metal for casting in molds.

It is a primary object and purpose of the present invention to provide afoundry cupola which is made up of a plurality of sections located insuperimposed relation, one over the other, and to detachably connect thesame together in a practical, simple and effective manner whereby thelower sections, such as the well, the tuyere and the melting sectionsmay be removed from a cupola for repair of any of the same which may beneeded, and a like section or sections used for replacement of anysections which are to be repaired, thereby avoiding the necessity ofhaving the whole cupola useless during the time that the repair of theinterior lining of any part thereof is being done.

A cupola furnace, used in molding to melt and refine pig iron, or toalloy the same to produce molten iron suitable for casting, comprisesessentially an outer steel shell which extends from the bottom to thetop of the furnace, a stack into which material is put for charging thefurnace, tuyeres through which air under pressure is forced to theburning coke within the furnace whereby the iron is melted, a bottomsection or well, in

which the melted iron collects with a suitable,

outlet for the same; and the entire cupola from top to bottom is linedwith fire brick or other equivalent refractory material capable ofwithstanding very high temperatures. The fire brick burns out underconstant and severe usage and is broken and damaged in part with thedumping into the cupola, through the charging opening near the upperpart thereof, of chunks of iron pigs and coke. The refractory liningusually is made of three courses of fire brick, the outer course next tothe shell being of a somewhat ci aper grade, while the highest and mostresistant and, therefore, most expensive grade is in the innermostcourse. The cupola furnaces in use are of various sizes, ranging from18" to several feet in diameter. In operation melted iron is drawn offfrom time to time from the lower end portion or well of the cupola. Thecharges of pig iron, coke and various other ingredients which may bewanted to provide different compositions of iron are placed in thecupola at the upper end portion thereof. If the cupola never needed anyrepair it could be operated continuously without ever stopping.

It is apparent that when the interior lining becomes burned out orotherwise damaged by reason of service to a point where the lining needsrepair,

it is necessary to keep the cupola in operation without recharging withraw materials, until the materials therein are exhausted. Then beforethe be forced as too rapid cooling caused rapid contraction setting upstrains which resulted in cracking and crumbling of the fire bricklining.

It is further evident that the fire brick lining at different places inthe height of the cupola furnace is subjected to different temperaturesso that in certain parts of the furnace, particularly at the melting andwell portions thereof, the lining burns out and becomes destroyedearlierthan at, for example, they upper portion of the cupola.

With my invention a structure has been devised whereby the cupolafurnace is divided into separable horizontal sections so that it is aneasy process to remove the bottom well alone, or said well with thetuyere section above it, or said well,

tuyere section and the melting section above the tuyere sectiontogether. Such parts of the furnace as are removed may be taken to arepair room and if, for example, the melting section above the tuyresection is the only one needing repair, it may be replaced by a likemelting sec-.' tion and then the whole taken back to the cupola anddetachably secured again in place. There is no requirement that thesections of the furnace remaining and which do not need repair shall becooled down. The interruption of the furnace operation is short ascompared to previously long time interruption of operation while thefurnace as a whole was cooling and while the lining was being repaired.V

The invention for attaining the desirable results above enumerated, aswell as many others not at this time stated, may be understood from thefollowing description, taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a cupola furnace which embodies my invention.

Fig. 2 is an elevation at right angles to that shown in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a central vertical section through the V furnace.

Figs. 4 and 5 are horizontal sections substantially on the planes oflines i-4 and 5-5, respectively, of Fig. 3, looking downwardly asindicated by the arrows.

Fig. 6 is an elevation showing the well section Fig. '7 is a similarelevation of the well and tuyere and melting sections separated from theremainder of the furnace and carried in the same way by the truck.

Fig. 8 is a view of the transfer truck or car equipped with jacks forlowering and lifting the cupola sections which may be removed or usedfor replacement.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary vertical section through the melting portion ofthe cupola illustrating the:

water cooling thereof.

Fig. 10 is a vertical section, and Fig. 11 isan elevation showing thedetachable connecting means used for detachably securing .the severalsectional parts of the furnace together.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figuresof the drawings.

In the construction of cupola furnace illustrated, an elongated upper orcharging sectiorr =A,

preferably of cylindrical form is provided, having an outer steel shellI with refractory material 2 lining the same and a charging opening 3 atone side by means of which the coke, pig iron and other ingredients areput in the cupola. A short distance above the lower end of the uppersection a heavyjcast steel ring 4 is secured having horizontal flanges,as best shown in Fig. 4, which rest upon I-beam frame members 5, whichin turn are 1 carriedat the upper ends of vertical posts 6, the

lower ends of which are anchored at the floor. This provides a permanentsupport for the charging section A. The lower end of the chargingsection is ina horizontal plane indicated at the line I (Fig. 3), thenext section B below having a horizontal upper end to come intoconjunction therewith. At the lower end and at the outer side ofthesteel shell I of said charging section A, a ring 8 of right anglecross section is secured and it may be provided with an inwardlyextending flange 8a to serve as a support for the lining 2.

The next lower section B'may be termed the melting section of thecupola. It has an outer steel shell enclosure 9 lined with refractoryfire brick material IOfthe same as the lining 2 previously described.At' its upper end around its outer sides an annular ring I I havingright angle cross section, that is, two flanges located at rightanglesito each other, is positioned so that the horizontal legs of thetwo rings 8 and II come together when the melting section B is movingupwardly against the charging section A. Holes in conjunction with eachother through said horizontal legs receive headed pins 12 which haveslots therethrough below the horizontal legs of the lower angle ring IIfor the passage of drift wedges l3, which wedges have openingstherethrough at I4 for cotter pins (Fig. 11). The wedges I3, also knownas drift keys, serve to tightly draw the ends of the adjacent sectionstogether and are readily removable any time when it is desired toseparate the sections. The lower side of the horizontal leg of the ringv8 and the upper side of the horizontal leg of the ring I I arerecessed, as shown in Fig. 10, whereby fire clay 15 in a plastic statemay be placed upon the upper side of the horizontal leg of the ring I I,and when the driftkeys are driven home the fire clay is spread outandcompressed, filling the recesses and providing a secure seal.

As one part of my invention the melting section is provided with acooling means. Within the shell 9 an annular water receiving chamber I6is made by attaching at the inner side of said shell 9 a ring I1,channel shaped in cross section-(Fig. 9)

'so as to make a continuous chamber the width of which, preferably, isequal to the thickness of the outer course of fire clay brick used inlining the cupola. At the outer side of the shell 9 and around the waterchamber l6 a continuous annular water receiving chamber I8 is made byattaching to said lining a second ring I 9, channel shaped in crosssection as shown in Fig. ,9, with which water carrying pipes 26"and 2Iare joined, one of said pipes being the inlet and the other the outletto the annular chamber I8. The shell 9 between the chambers I5 and I8 isperforated with a large number of openings for the free passage. ofwater from the outer chamber l8 to the inner chamber I6. It has beenfound that the lining II'I-of the melting section B of the cupola :lastsvery much longer when cooled by water in accordance with the structureand use thereof which has been described.

At'the lower end and outer side of the melting section B of the cupolaan annular ring 22 of right angle cross section is secured, beingsubstantially similar to the ring 8 previously described. The outwardlyextending horizontal leg of the ring 22 has its lower side insubstantially the same plane with the lower end surface 23 of themelting section B.

Immediately below the' melting section is a relatively narrow section 0,known as the tuyere section, which has the same three course fire bricklining 24 as the charging section, with an outer steel shell 25surrounding the same, while surrounding and substantially covering theentire shell 25 is a sectional ring casting 26 which has upper and lowerhorizontal flanges thus making the ring of a channel form. The upperoutwardly extending flange of the ring casting 26 comes against thelower side of the ring 22 and, the same connecting pins I 2 with driftpins or wedges I3 are used to detachably secure the tuyere section C atthe lower end of the melting section B.

Through the line 24 of the tuyre section a plurality of horizontalradial passages 21 are provided for carrying air into the cupola. A windbox 28 of continuous annular shape and, as shown, substantiallyrectangular in cross section, is disposed around the melting section Bof the cupola immediately, outside the water receiving chamber I8. Fromits lower side hollow supporting posts and conduits 29 extend downwardlyto and may be integrally formed with or otherwise connected to radiallyextending hollow arms 21, whereby there are continuous conduits for airfrom the wind box 28 through the several post conduits 29"to the radialarms 30 and thence through the passages 21 into the cupola.

The bottom section or well D of the cupola has an outer steel shell 3|lined with fire brick lining 32 and its juncture at the lower side withthe tuyere section C is in a horizontal plane as indicated at 33, thesame as the junctions of the other sections are indicated at 28 and 7.An annular ring 34, like the ring II, is secured around and at the upperend of the well D, the horizontal leg portions thereof engaging againstthe lower flange of the channel line ring 26 being detachablyI connectedthereto by similar pins I2 and drift wedges I3. The bottom of the wellis supplied by a sheet metal plate 35, which ordinarily is covered witha silica sand covering 26 within the cupola. The well, adjacent itslower end, has a spout 31 for guiding the molten metal when an outletpassage 28 is tapped to permit the metal to fiow outward as in allcupolas. At the opposite and rear side of the cupola, a short distanceabove the passage 28, a blow-out 39 is provided through which slag,dross and the like, which may be carried at the upper side of the bodyof molten metal within the well, may be forced out by air pressure whichis entered through the tuyere passages 21. The bottom of the well ispreferably reinforced by a circular or annular ring 40 of cross sectionsimilar to small railroad rails, though of course, any other form ofcross section for the reinforcing member may be readily used.

On the floor of the foundry and extending under the well of the cupolafurnace are spaced apart tracks 4! which lie between the opposite posts6 supporting the cupola. A truck or transfer car 42, with wheels torunthe rails 4|, carries a number of jacks 43 at its upper side which,preferably, are hydraulic jacks, though the invention is in no senselimited in use to hydraulic jacks. With the jacks collapsed the truck ortransfer car may be moved underneath the cupola and then the jacksextended so as to bring the upper heads of the jacks against thereinforcement 40, as shown in Fig. 2.

It is evident that with the jacks extended as shown in Fig. 2, theconnecting pins I2 and the drift wedges l3 associated therewith may beremoved so as to disconnect the well D from the tuyere section C. Thenon lowering the jacks the well section D may be moved by moving thetruck or transfer car 42 over the rails 4|. It is also evident that bydisconnecting the pins l2, which connect the tuyere and melting sectionsB and C, both the well D and tuyere section C may be lowered and removedtogether. Also, as shown in Fig. '7, the well D, the tuyere section Cand the melting section B may all be removed together by disconnectingthe melting and charging sections.

Inasmuch as the melting section B, the tuyere section 0 and the well Dare subjected to much fiercer temperatures than the charging section Ait is apparent that repair of the linings thereof is needed much moreoften than repair of the lining of the charging section A. Furthermore,the well section D being subjected substantially continuously to thehigh temperature of molten iron collected therein, and not being cooledby the water circulating construction which surrounds the meltingsection B, such well may need to be repaired oftener than either thesection B or C. In any case whatever part of the sections below thepermanent charging section A need relining repair, with my inventionthat part, either alone or with other parts may be disconnected, movedto a repair room where it can be permitted to cool, and any sectionwhich is left in the repair room for repair may be replaced with extrareplacement sections provided for such purpose. This greatly increasesthe operating time a cupola furnace may have and also economizes heatlosses, as the upper or charging section A does not have to be cooleddown for removal of a section to be repaired or replaced with another.

The advantages described are of great value in foundry operation. Therepair of the cupola lining is made much easier and safer and there isevident economy in connection therewith.

The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be consideredcomprehensive of all forms of structure coming within the scope thereof.

I claim:

1. In a cupola furnace, a vertically disposed charging section, aplurality of vertical posts, means connecting the upper ends of saidposts and the charging section for supporting said section by the posts,melting, tuyere and well sections of the furnace located in verticalalinement below the charging section, a second means for detachablyconnecting the melting section at the lower end of the charging section,a third means for detachably connecting the tuyere section at the lowerend of the melting section, and a fourth means for detachably connectingthe well section at the lower end of the tuyere section, said second,third and fourth means being individually operatable for the purposedescribed.

2. In a cupola furnace, a vertically disposed charging section, verticalposts supporting the same and extending to a floor below the lower endof the charging section, a plurality of horizontal sections located oneover the other below said charging section, individually operatablemeans for detachably securing the said plurality of sections together,additional separate means for detachably securing the uppermost of saidsections to the lower end of the charging section, and tracks extendingunder the furnace below the lowermost section thereof, whereby a truckmay be moved underneath the cupola, as and for the purposes described.

3. A cupola furnace comp-rising, a plurality of vertical sectionsseparated from each other on horizontal planes, said sections eachhaving a metal outer shell and a fire resisting inner lining, metalmembers having horizontal outwardly extending flanges secured to saidsections whereby said outwardly extending flanges are located at thelower end of the uppermost section, the upper end of the lowermostsection and at both the upper and lower ends of intermediate sections,and means for detachably connecting together adjacent flanges at theengaging ends of said sections, whereby the sections may be readilyseparated and removed, one or more, from the others.

4. A construction containing the elements in combination defined inclaim 3, wherein the means for detachably connecting said outwardlyextending adjacent flanges comprises, headedins passing through the.flanges, said pins having each a slot therethrough, and drift wedgespassing through said slots and bearing against the slots and theadjacent sides of a flange, sub stantially as described.

LAURENCE A. GROTEWOHL.

